


Growing Pains and Gearing Up

by stark1993



Series: Starstruck- an MCU Phase 1 story [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgard, Comics/Movie Crossover, F/M, Gen, Half-Human, Helicarrier (Marvel), I'm Bad At Tagging, Iron Man 3 Prelude (Comic), Midtown School of Science and Technology, Miðgarðr | Midgard, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Captain America: The First Avenger, Post-Iron Man 1, Post-Iron Man 2, Post-Thor (2011), Pre-Avengers (2012), SHIELD, Stark Tower, Superpowers, The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative (Comic), The Tesseract (Marvel), Thor The Dark World Prelude (Comic), Tony Stark Has Issues, happy is a father figure, war machine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29479899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stark1993/pseuds/stark1993
Summary: Come along with Delilah as she navigates her senior year of high school, graduation, and all that's in store for her. This fic will cover the time between the first Thor movie and the first Avengers movie.There's a lot of comics/movie crossovers in this fic, and all scripts, storylines, characters, and lines are from Marvel movies and Marvel comics. I'll individually credit those before each chapter since I don't want to spoil anything just yet ;).This was also supposed to only be 2 or 3 chapters, but I got hella carried away with the MCU timeline. Some chapters are short, some are long, and they are all set up in a diary-like style for the most part.
Series: Starstruck- an MCU Phase 1 story [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028883





	1. August 30, 2010

First day of senior year! I look around at these kids I’ve known all my life and I ask myself… What happened? As I walk around Midtown School of Science and Technology, they dodge me. It’s like the Red Sea parting. The only people who talk to me are Addy and Danny. Not even Raoul will talk to me. In homeroom, he wouldn’t make eye contact with me.

“Hey, Raoul,” I said as Addy and I sat down. He gulped and looked away. Danny furrowed his eyebrows, elbowed Raoul, and whispered something to him. 

“Dude, what’s your damage? You’re number one right now!”

Addy just shrugged and pulled out her laptop. I did too, but I was distracted. It seemed like I had been really distracted recently. For the entire rest of the summer since I was in New Mexico, I was camped out in the workshop in Malibu. Even Dad tried to get me out, but I was busy working. Jane had so much research to line up with my own. 

Research was tough to do with zero sleep, however. Every night I had the dreams I was used to, but now they ended with green eyes staring into me, a hand slipping away from mine, and a voice whispering, “Trust me.” The first time, I woke up in a sweat, panting. When Loki let go of me and sent me hurtling back to Earth, he said nothing. He just watched me. But every night, I hear his voice. His voice says two words I never heard him say. I would count it as a vision, but the visions were gone. Ever since Thor returned to Asgard, they stopped. So did the electricity. 

But the stares and the whispers started. I was used to being thought of as shallow and using-Daddy’s-money-to-get-into-Midtown, but I quickly shut those down. These new whispers were harder to deflect.

Freak.

Dude, change your schedule. Delilah has Physics C for third period. 

We should just send her back to her own planet.

Alien?

How are they even letting her still come to school?

Mr. Van Hessen walked into homeroom literature and waved to everyone. We all settled down and I turned away from Danny and Raoul to face the front. I didn’t hear anyone whispering, but I could feel staring. Van Hessen set his stuff down on his desk and glanced up. His eyebrows furrowed, and he looked around the class. His eyes fell on me, and his mouth fell into an “o.”

“Alright, kids, listen up,” he said, logging onto the computer, “Signups for the news show are in your emails, but for today, Wiebe and Warner are taking care of it.” A couple people laughed. Those were two teachers who should never be allowed to do the daily announcement news show. It was all puns and encouraging thoughts. 

“I guess we know who shouldn’t try out for the news,” someone said from behind me. I gritted my teeth.

“Is it even legal for an alien to be a news anchor?”

“Is it even legal for an alien to go to school here?” A bunch of kids laughed. Addy glanced at me and shook her head.

“Alright, that’s it,” Mr. Van Hessen called, slamming his hands on his desk. “If I hear one more of you say another negative word about any student, I’m sending you down to the principal’s office! Now, calm down, and watch the announcements.” He sat down, and the news show started on the classroom TV. I couldn’t pay attention to it, though. No one could. I was too busy worrying about what people were saying about me, and they were too busy not minding their own business. 

But could I blame them? When I was on Asgard, I felt at home. And it wasn’t even where I was from! Maybe I would have been better off if I was stranded there. Frigga could have told me about my mom, Thor and I could have sparred, and Sif I could spend our days laughing at the other Warriors. Suddenly, as the news played and kids whispered, I felt homesick for a place I never lived. 

At least on Asgard, Ms. Wiebe didn’t ask Mr. Warner if his refrigerator was running.


	2. October 16, 2010

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, my apologies that the diary parts are hard to distinguish from the dialogue and story parts. Basically, if you think the tense has changed and that's weird, it's the diary parts. Or if there's a sudden flashback, it's a diary segment.

Last night I dreamed that my mom and I were floating around the clouds and stars again. Our hands brushed, and then another hand shot out and grabbed me. We started falling through the sky as his arms wrapped around me, and I stared up into his green eyes.

“Don’t let me fall!” I screamed.

“Trust me!” Loki replied as our arms slipped away from each other, and I fell into a storm. 

I woke up, not sweaty or panting, just heart pounding. I was used to these dreams. It felt like someone was trying to tell me something. Was Loki really still alive? Before I could really spiral into that thought, the robot butler opened his robot mouth. 

“Incoming call from Miss Addy, Delilah,” Jarvis said. 

I flopped back onto my bed. “Okay, J, put her on.”

“That lying little son of a bitch weasel freakonaut!” Addy screeched from the speaker. I jumped at the sudden attack from her.

“Whoa, Ads, who?”

“DEVIN ALEXANDER!” 

“Oh, jeez, that jock from Andrew Jackson who took you out last night?”

“Yeah. Well, he was a typical public-school creep! We went for a drive, and then ended up somewhere with a bunch of trees—”

“Addy, for the last time, it’s called Central Park.”

“We weren’t in Central Park! Legit, a place with a bunch of trees out of the city. He said we were going ‘necking.’”

“Ew, who says that anymore?”

“Exactly! So, I socked him, kicked him out of his car, and drove off.”

“Wait, you just… stranded him there because he wanted to make out with you?”

“He started comin’ at me!”

“Alright, alright.”

“And my dads took care of the creep.”

“Well, good.” Addy didn’t respond for a moment. I sighed. “You want to go get blowouts and fancy outfits and go call the press?”

“YES!”

“Alright, I’ll get out of bed.”

For the longest time, when a boy breaks our hearts, Addy fails a test, someone’s dad says no, or anything else goes wrong, Addy’s and mine tradition is to make it onto a magazine cover. It used to land me in Obadiah’s office. 

I sat in the chair across from Uncle Obi’s desk, swinging my feet. Obadiah was outside the office, talking with a few Stark security guards. He walked in, shut the door, and walked around behind his desk. He tossed a magazine onto the desk and I looked over at it. Addy and I were on the cover, posing outside a café on Madison. I grinned at it. We looked good! Addy’s hair was teased, and her nose stud glittered. My hair was straight, and my skirt was a little too short. I just knew that was the first thing Obadiah was going to mention.

“Well, kid.”

“Hey, Obi.”

“Thank you so much for making the PR team and me come in on a Sunday afternoon! I’m so glad you had so much fun doing this.” He pointed to the magazine cover. “This is completely inappropriate!”

“Come on, Obi, I’m fifteen! I can wear a skirt!” Called it.

“We worked out an arrangement with the press. This is coming off the stands.”

“Well, Cassie and Carly saw it, so that’s all that matters—”

“Delilah!” Obadiah boomed, clenching his fists. I jumped and looked up at him. “Don’t do this again. Your father won’t be very happy if he starts seeing you all over the news like this.”

“At least he’d see me,” I muttered, looking away and crossing my arms. 

That was only a couple months before he betrayed Dad. That time, Cassie and Carly had posted on MySpace and told everyone not to come to my birthday party because I wasn’t even going to pass out party favors. I laughed a little about that as I got ready to meet Addy at our favorite salon. Now, issues like that seemed so petty. 

“Hey!” I called as I hip-bumped Addy outside the salon. 

“Hey back,” she said, going for the door. “What are we going for today? Tiger Beat, Seventeen?”

“Come on, Ads,” I replied, “We’re high school seniors. We could go for People!” Addy just rolled her eyes and laughed as we headed for the counter.

“Hey, we’re here for Kev,” Addy said to the receptionist. She looked up and paused. 

“Sure, Kev, yeah,” the receptionist said. She looked down at her computer and made a face. She glanced up at me, and I quickly looked away. I suddenly remembered that things were different now. People didn’t just see me as a rich genius girl anymore, they saw me as an alien. Just that. Just an alien. Sometimes, people used to recognize me. Now, every single person knew my face. And this receptionist didn’t seem too happy to see it. 

“Addy,” I whispered, turning slightly, “I feel like this may not have been the best idea for me—”

“Um, I’m sorry, it looks like we double booked Kev,” the receptionist said. I turned to face her. “We just have one appointment available.” My mouth dried.

“Right, of course,” I muttered. I nodded to Addy. “You take it. It’s your thing.”

“What?” Addy scoffed. She looked at the receptionist. “We booked with Kev himself, and he doesn’t—”

“I’m sorry, I can only give one of you an appointment,” the woman said, flicking her eyes to me. I backed away and looked at Addy. 

“I shouldn’t have come. I wasn’t thinking. Go, Addy. I’ll see you later.”

“Wait, Del—” I ran out of the salon before she could finish. I looked around the street, looking for an alley to run into and then shoot up to a roof, but then I remembered that I no longer had to hide. They all knew about me; there was no need to hide. So, I shot up into the sky right there from in front of the salon. I heard gasps and cameras clicking, but I ignored it and flew up into the clouds to where I could no longer see the city. 

“Way to go, Stark,” I muttered to myself as I stretched out above the clouds. I weighed the pros and cons of my new situation. Pros: I didn’t have to hide. I knew who my true friends were. My dad and I were closer. Cons: I was a freak. People knew I didn’t belong here. Everyone was talking about me in a negative way, and I couldn’t stop it. The only place I could feel free and like myself was above the city, or underground in my dad’s lab. I could make the things people said and thought about me disappear. 

I felt bad about ditching Addy, but she looked so good on the cover of Seventeen that day.


	3. December 31, 2010

Last night I dreamed that Loki and I were dancing again. Thor was there, in a crowd of Asgardians who clapped along as Loki and I flew around the golden floor of the palace banquet hall. He picked me up, then spun me out, and suddenly I was falling through the cosmos, my fingers slipping out of his reach.

“Trust me.”

“How are you still entertained by that?” Dad asked, sitting down on the couch next to me as I played on the new Xbox Kinect I got for Christmas.

“Well, you got me, like, ten games!” I replied as I dodged obstacles on the game. I paused it and turned around. “Six of them haven’t even been released yet!” Dad just laughed. Pepper walked in wearing a robe and frowned.

“Um, hello?” she said, waving in our direction. 

“Hey,” I replied, waving back. She just scoffed and crossed her arms. 

“Hello, you two! We have a Christmas party to be getting ready for!” she cried. 

“We do?” Dad asked, twisting his neck to look back at her. I groaned. I had completely forgotten about the Stark New Year’s Eve Party we had in New York City later in the evening.

“I cannot believe you. And while we’re in New York, we’re going to the tower so you can look over some more blueprints.”

“For the tower?” I cried, jumping onto the couch. Pepper smiled at me.

“Yes, for the tower. I guess you can come, too.” She walked back up the stairs, and I frowned. I looked at Dad.

“I wasn’t already invited?” I scoffed. He just shrugged. I turned off the game and ran upstairs to get ready.

I fell asleep on the plane ride to New York. I had begged Dad to let me fly myself so I could meet up with Addy before the party, but he wouldn’t hear it. He was getting more and more tight on my security. After all, rude comments on the Internet were pissing him off. I told him they were just nerds who didn’t know what they were talking about, but he was taking them seriously. 

Of course, when I fell asleep, I dreamed again.

Mom and I were looking at each other again. We stood across a puddle from each other. Our reflections were talking, but we weren’t. I tried to speak, but I couldn’t. And, as usual, she said nothing. I looked down again and looked at the reflections in the pool. I was saying something, talking animatedly with my hands, and my mother was laughing. She nodded and spoke, then I laughed. We both laughed, then I said something. 

I looked up at the other version of my mom, who was staring at me, completely silent. I looked down at the reflection of her, who was talking. Why wasn’t this one speaking to me? Why did she never speak to me? I wanted to scream as we just stared at each other. Finally, she opened her mouth. 

“Trust him.” 

My eyes opened and I sat up. My chest heaved as I looked around the plane. Dad and Pepper sat across from me, reading over some plans for the tower. Dad glanced up at me. 

“Hey. You okay?” he asked. Pepper glanced up at me as well. I nodded and sat back.

“Yeah. Just didn’t mean to fall asleep.” I looked out the window and sighed. My mother said to trust him. Trust who? If I was supposed to trust Loki, this was a lousy way for the universe to tell me that. The only time she ever speaks to me in these dreams, and her voice is muddled and cloudy. It almost sounded like mine (I think), but I could barely hear it. 

So come on, Universe! Send me a real, convincing message!

“Hey, are you okay, seriously?” Dad asked. I looked over at them. Pepper was wearing her concerned look, mixed with a little bit of fear. 

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“You’re doing… uh…” Dad and Pepper looked down and then back into my eyes. I looked down and say my hands were sparkling and glittering with energy. I waved them, and the lights disappeared. 

“Sorry. Weird dream.”

“How weird?” Pepper asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Um. I’m not actually sure,” I replied, leaning forward. “What are you guys doing?”


	4. January 1, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday, Delilah!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Another fight between Del and Tony. (I promise their relationship will not always be like this... but just be prepared, this part of my series is basically just strain in their relationship. So wait for my Avengers companion fic!!)

I stood at the base of Stark Tower, Dad’s latest and biggest architectural project. Construction only started a couple weeks ago, but the steel beams that were going to be the reinforcement of the building. Dad and Pepper stood on the inside, where the lobby was going to be, talking to construction workers. I walked around the outside of the building. The Pan Am building used to stand here, but Stark Tower was quickly going up in its place. It was a huge sculpture of a building, being set up in the middle of Manhattan. It was impressive. 

Stark Tower was going to be my new home by the summer. I was getting my own floor, too. The top part of the tower was going to be the penthouse were Dad, Pepper, and I lived. The bottom floor of the penthouse had a huge common area, not to mention labs and workshops. Then, Dad and Pepper had a floor all to themselves. Mine was above that. Dad and Pepper were slowly making the move to New York, but they were still staying in Malibu for most of the time. I think Dad and I were a little too used to living separately. The idea of living in the same building as my father for more than a couple of weeks was strange. 

I walked around some piles of construction materials and met Dad and Pepper at what was going to be the front of the tower. 

“Hey!” I called. “How’s all this going?”

“Good. It’ll be livable by the summer, but it won’t be fully operational for another year or so,” Dad said, putting his arms around Pepper and me. “I won’t spare a single expense when it comes to this project. It’ll be the world’s first, biggest, greatest display of clean energy.” 

“And your head will grow double,” I remarked. Pepper laughed as we walked to the car. Happy opened the back door for Dad and Pepper, and I walked around to the passenger door. I took one more look up at the cranes and men working and smiled as I got in the car.

“Would you like to go straight to the restaurant now?” Happy said. 

“Why not?” Pepper replied. “I’m sure they’ll let us in early. There’s only five of us.” I turned around and gave her a look. 

“Where are we going?” I asked.

Everyone glanced at each other. 

“Um… Your birthday dinner,” Dad replied, rolling his eyes. My eyes widened and I looked around at everyone. They all looked at each other again and made faces. 

I forgot my own birthday. As usual, I was so distracted by my own inner thoughts all day long. Other thoughts didn’t even register with me. I woke up each morning thinking about my mom, the universe, my powers, and, unfortunately, Loki. I went to bed thinking about those things as well, and when I wasn’t talking to other people, I was thinking to myself or talking with Jarvis about cosmic energy. 

I wasn’t thinking about my damn birthday. But I was eighteen today. Did Addy tell me happy birthday last night when she left the party? I feel like she did, and I didn’t even remember. 

“No, yeah, of course,” I said with a laugh. “Us and Addy, right? Awesome. Uh, remind me, what restaurant—?”

“Us and Rhodey, remember, Addy left last night at the party with her dads to Paris,” Pepper replied. 

“And we’re going to La Bernadin,” Dad added, holding Pepper’s hand. “Like we always do for your birthday.” 

“Dad, you’ve celebrated, like, four birthdays with me—”

“What’s going on with you?” Dad interrupted. “It’s like you’re having episodes of blacking out. Is it that—that portal that you went through—?” I scoffed and turned around to the front as Happy pulled out into NYC traffic. “Delilah, don’t ignore me, say something—”

“I have nothing to say. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but it’s not Thor’s fault—”

“I didn’t say it was… Thor’s… fault, I just said—”

“Forget it, Dad!”

“No—”

“Both of you, please!” Pepper groaned. “Delilah, this conversation is not over. By a long shot. But, since it is your birthday—”

“That she forgot—”

“Tony!” Pepper sighed and shook her head. “Anyway, Delilah, since it’s your birthday, we’ll table the conversation. Let’s just have a nice dinner.”

“Without any Asgard or cosmic energy talk,” Dad added. I turned around to glare at him. Finally, I gritted my teeth and muttered my agreement as I turned around to the front. 

“No, you didn’t, you son of a bitch, I’m the one who knocked him out!” Rhodey cackled. He punched Dad playfully, and then they clinked their drinks. I grinned and laughed as Pepper groaned and rolled her eyes. 

“Yeah, well who dealt the final blow?” I teased, leaning back. Everyone booed, even Happy, and Pepper just laughed at me. 

“Yeah, yeah, and then, who flew all the way to New Mexico—”

“Tony,” Pepper warned, her laughter suddenly gone. 

“And then visited a whole different planet—”

“As I’ve already explained, Dad, I’ve discovered that Asgard is not its own planet, just a separate realm connected to ours by—”

“I’m sorry, didn’t I say no talking about this?” Pepper cried, looking hysterically around at Happy and Rhodey. Both men just looked away, awkwardly. I glanced away from my dad, who was now leaning forward, angry, to Pepper, who looked pissed. I sighed and looked away from everyone.

“I forgot how much I liked my usual birthdays when you would forget about me,” I muttered to Dad. “Obi and I would just sit here and not talk. It was boring but I didn’t have to deal with this shit!” I stood up and walked through the restaurant and out the door. I looked around Fifty-First, then shot up into the night sky. 

I drew into the air with my finger. Light shot out of my finger to make pictures. I drew Thor’s face, Frigga’s, even Odin’s, though I only saw it once for a second. I hesitated, after that, wanting to draw Loki, but suddenly afraid to see his face again. I saw it enough in my dreams. I didn’t need to create it. I heard a machine powering up and whirring behind me. I rolled my eyes and turned around.

Iron Man landed on the roof behind me and walked over. He sat down over the edge of the building next to me and opened his helmet. Dad looked out over the city, his eyes drawn to where the beams of Stark Tower were beginning to show among the tallest buildings. 

“I know you didn’t come here to apologize,” I muttered. He turned to look at me and scoffed. 

“No, I didn’t, I came here to have a civilized conversation with my daughter, but she appears to have a ridiculous attitude,” Dad replied. I groaned and leaned over the building to look down at the cars and the people on the streets. I looked back up at the sky and sighed. 

“Okay,” I said. “I’m sorry. What are we talking about?”

“We’re continuing our conversation from earlier,” Dad said, turning to me. “What’s going on with you?”

“I’ve just been distracted,” I replied, shrugging. 

“I know. Pepper got a call from Midtown.” I turned to look at him, my eyes wide. “Your grades are slipping. When have you ever gotten a B on anything? Ever? What the hell happened?” I groaned and shook my head. 

“Dad—”

“Seriously, Del, what is going on? And I know you haven’t completed your MIT application—”

“I am not finishing my MIT application, Dad!” I cried, getting up and walking around the roof. I pushed my hair back from my face. “I’m not finishing my NYU application, Harvard, Brown, Yale, Cornell—none of them.”

Dad jumped up and walked over to me. His face was full of shock and confusion. 

“You had a whole plan for me,” I continued, looking away. “I know, I know I was going to go to MIT, take over the company, you and Pep would retire on some beach far far away, but—” I looked back up at him and took a deep breath. “But does that seem feasible to you? I know that the Bifrost spitting Thor out was only the beginning.” I looked up at the sky and felt my chest expand as I breathed it in. “The cosmos speaks to me, Dad. I feel it within me. I feel it around me.”

“Del, I don’t understand—” I turned to look at him, and he took a step back as he looked into my eyes. 

“My destiny is not here!” I cried, spreading my arms out. “And you know that your plan failed the moment you put on that suit. There’s no retirement plan for you. Now that you are Iron Man, there’s not a fight you won’t want to get into. You know that!” Dad just shook his head. 

“You have to go to college—”

“No, I don’t,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t need it. I don’t want it. I know I have been distracted recently, but that’s only because I have finally let go of the idea of only Earth existing. There’s more out there. So much more for me to think. So much for me to learn, but what I want to learn about, MIT can’t teach me. Only they can.” I looked up at the sky again, where I saw stars. Dad looked up, too, but confused. He couldn’t see them over the city lights. Only I could see. And I saw every single star up there. The clouds of the cosmos, the galaxies. I saw all of it. And it was beautiful.

“I’m sorry,” Dad said after a moment. I looked at him. There were tears in his eyes, and there were tears in mine too. “I should have known that… You’re too much your mom. One day, you’ll make it up there.” I nodded. He walked to me, held his arms out, and held me into a hug. I put my arms around him, around his clunky suit, and rested my head on the cold metal chest piece. 

“I’m sorry, too.”

“You know, I still want you to be valedictorian.” I just rolled my eyes and pushed off him. He chuckled. 

“I’ll race you back to Stark,” I said, grinning and running for the roof. 

“Oh, please! I’ve been dying to try out these new thrusters!” he called after me as we both dove off the roof and sped over and through the city.


	5. March 15, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delilah gets some tough news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I feel like these high school bits are a little boring. Don't worry, though, because she's graduating soon, and then she's going to get a pretty sick job ;).

“Hey, guys,” I called as I walked into the Robotics Club meeting. Everyone was already busy working on their prototypes, except for Addy, who just sat at the lab table, staring at our project. I chuckled as I walked over and sat down next to her. I set my bag down to rest against a leg of the table. “Battery.”

“Oh,” she muttered, nodding, and plugging the thing in. I picked up a small screwdriver and the back plate to our robot. 

“Hey, Stark,” Mr. Warner called. He stood in the doorway of the classroom. I glanced up. “I need to talk to you.” 

“Sure, Warner,” I replied, hopping off the stool at the lab table and walking back out. He shut the classroom door and I smiled up at him. “What’s up?”

“Listen, I—I don’t know how to tell you this, but the, uh, judges panel for the National Robotics Competition met earlier today and… and there’s something you need to know about the rules.”

I waved away at him. “I swear I’m using only school materials. Everything on me and Addy’s robot will check out at inspection—”

“It’s not that,” Mr. Warner replied, running a hand through his shaggy, curly hair. “It’s that… You can’t go…” He looked away from me. I furrowed my eyebrows. 

“Wait, why not?”

“They, um, they discussed that, well—really, I don’t know how to say this—but they discussed that only humans can compete,” he continued, looking uneasy. I paused. I let his words sink in. 

“They said I can’t compete. Because I’m an alien.” His eyes widened. I looked away. “They actually discussed that. They actually said that I couldn’t go because I’m—because I—but I haven’t even done anything… unworldly! They can monitor me the whole time, Warner! They’ll see I’m only using school materials; I’m not doing anything to the robot—” 

“I’m sorry, Delilah, I’ve asked them if they’ll do anything to think about this, but they said that we should be lucky the school gets to compete at all.” Mr. Warner put a hand on my shoulder. I sighed. Robotics was one of the school’s biggest competitions besides Academic Decathlon. And I was Robotics’ best champion. Would they strip me of past victories? Would the school even let me be valedictorian?

“No, I get it,” I said before I spiraled through thoughts. “That’s fine.” I went back inside, grabbed my bag, told Addy that I had to drop out, and then ran out. Once I left the school, I flew up into the air and headed above the clouds. I had to clear my head. Be somewhere where other people couldn’t tell me I couldn’t do something because of who—what—I was.


	6. April 11, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delilah talks to some old friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a companion to the comic series Thor: The Dark World Prelude. There will be a few more mentions of this comic series in my own series, and all storylines and characters from the comic belong to Marvel!

Part of me is really scared. What if Thor and Loki are gone for good? What if I blew my only shot at a life outside of this world? What if I really don’t have a future beyond this atmosphere?

Shit. 

Maybe I should have submitted my MIT application. 

“Delilah, wake up,” Jarvis said gently. The lights in my room slowly brightened. I groaned and rolled over. 

“What?” I moaned. I glanced at my bedside alarm clock. “Jarvis, it is an ungodly hour and I have school—”

“I am picking up severe disturbances in cosmic energy over New Mexico,” Jarvis explained. I sat upright, completely awake now. 

“No fucking way,” I whispered. “Call Jane!”

“Calling Dr. Foster,” Jarvis replied. I jumped out of bed and phased into clothes as I heard the line click.

“Uh… Delilah?” a voice, not Jane’s answered. I paused. Darcy Lewis, her intern. 

“Darcy! Darcy—are you guys still in New Mexico? Because I just picked up some insane readings on you, and—”

“Yeah, um,” Darcy interrupted. I heard her and another woman have a short conversation to themselves. “It’s Delilah Stark.”

“No,” Jane replied. “Not now.”

“Jane, she could help!”

“I can do this!”

“But Jane! It’s been a year of—”

“I know, Darcy!”

“Darcy!” I called, exasperated. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, uh, our wormhole experiments didn’t necessarily go as planned,” she replied. She sighed. “And Jane isn’t really… well, she thinks she can do this herself.” My heart fell. It wasn’t Thor coming back. It was just Darcy and Jane experimenting. 

“Shit,” I muttered. I sat back down on the bed and my baggy Stark t-shirt reappeared. “Is she okay? Like actually okay?”

“Uh…”

“Never mind. Just call me if you guys can think of anything I can do—”

“Yeah, yeah, we will. Bye, Delilah.”

“Bye,” I mumbled as Darcy disconnected. I flopped back down under the covers. I knew I could help. I knew they knew I could help. I didn’t sleep at all after that. I stayed up practically all night going through our shared folders for any updated information, so by the time I sat down beside Addy in lit class, my eyes kept closing.

“Dude,” she muttered, slapping me in the back of the head with her copy of Beowulf. I sat up, only slightly more awake after that. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Wormholes,” I whispered back, picking up my own book. I hated reading Beowulf. It was great poetry, and I got all of it, even the weird old English references, but the whole ancient-hero-who-was-stronger-than-any-others-in-his-civilization thing was too much for me. I kept picturing Thor, the god of thunder, who I was sure could defeat Beowulf within seconds.


	7. May 24, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delilah graduates from Midtown in a week, and she finally finds out if all her hard work pays off! Will she be valedictorian? Or will the school board decide that she can't even compete?

It’s been months and months of nothing. No answers, not even an inch farther on my research. It seemed like I needed a breakthrough—something beyond me. And I graduate high school next week. I thought at this point, the dreams would mean something again. Something other than my mom staring at me and Loki whispering that I should trust him. 

I dreamed last night that I was flying through space, seemingly like a comet. I passed planet after planet, each one looking different than the last, each one strange and unfamiliar. I stopped flying, and I landed in a golden room, where people danced, laughed, and drank. I ran through it, picking up the ball gown I was in, until I ran straight into someone. I looked up and gasped.

Loki looked down at me as we danced. I looked up at him, curious about the expression in his eyes. 

“I believe I owe you an apology,” he said, his voice serious. 

“Really? Two in one night?” I teased.

“I saw you, and while you are as every bit magnificent as your mother, I discredited your grace and beauty because of your halfling status,” Loki continued. It wasn’t a great apology, but I drank in every word he spoke. His voice was smooth and sweet, though the words he spoke hurt a little. 

“Halfling. You think I’m—”

Suddenly, we were flying back from a colorful and bright explosion. The Bifrost. I looked to my right, at Thor, whose eyes were full of pain and regret. I looked to my left, at Loki, who was fearful. We fell. Loki grabbed onto my hand, but we tumbled through the cosmos.

He held me tight and whispered in my ear: “Trust me.” 

Then he let me fall. 

I woke up with a jolt. I looked at the clock. I was going to be late for school if I didn’t get up. 

“Are you excited?” Addy asked, bumping into me at the lockers. I turned around and smiled at her. 

“Oh, yeah,” I replied, shutting my locker. “I only tried harder for my dad. If I’m not going to college, I might as well be valedictorian. I just wish someone would even look at me again…” I leaned against the closed locker and glanced across the hall at Raoul, who was talking to Danny and a couple other kids from Robotics. We had both waited for this day for years now. we had always been back and forth for first, to be valedictorian, and our race was finally coming to a close.

For a while, I had resorted to relinquishing the top spot. But then Dad and I had a heart-to-heart, kind of, and I decided I shouldn’t give up. The Universe wasn’t sending me any signs, anyway. No sign of Thor or Loki, other than in my dreams, and those messages still were not clear. 

Raoul caught my eye and quickly looked away. That’s how it had been the entire school year. And it wasn’t just Raoul; it was a lot of classmates. People who used to think I was cool, funny, and smart all of a sudden were afraid of me. I hadn’t even given them a reason to be afraid of me! It’s not like I went completely psycho inside the school and zapped people. 

Then again, everyone saw the footage from the Stark Expo. And New Mexico. And that time Dad and I confronted that Emil Blonsky guy. That was a pretty bad ride. 

Maybe they did have a reason to be afraid of me, I thought as the bell rang. Seniors were to report to the gym to get caps, gowns, and final rankings. We walked through the halls, everyone except Addy and Danny keeping their typical distance from me, and made our way into the gym. Ms. Wiebe welcomed us in, checked our names off the list, and Mr. Warner and Van Hessen started passing out regalia. I walked over to the table with cords for each group: cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. Two stoles were laid out at the end: a white and blue one. The white, for the valedictorian, and the blue for the salutatorian. I caught Raoul eyeing them as well. Then I heard a couple people behind me talking.

“They wouldn’t let her actually be val, right?”

“No way. She got kicked out of Robotics and the Decathlon.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s got it, though. They never said anything.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s fair if an alien wins valedictorian. At least Raoul has a human brain.”

I took a deep breath, shoved my sparking hands into my hoodie pockets, and found Addy and Danny on the bleachers. I nodded to them as I sat down. They nodded back. 

“People are talking smack over by the tables,” I muttered. They glanced at each other. “What?”

“People are talking smack all over the school,” Addy replied. “You’ve kept your chill all year! Though this would be a totally great time for you to lose that chill.” Danny elbowed her, and she giggled. I rolled my eyes. 

“I have no chill to even lose,” I groaned. “I’m fine. I’m just a cool, easy-going half-alien!” I threw my hands up, and they glowed. I quickly put them away. Addy and Danny glanced at each other. A couple kids looked over. I rolled my eyes and leaned back into the bleachers. “I swear to God, though, if they say I can’t be valedictorian because I’m alien, I’ll—I’ll sue!”

“I think this counts as losing her chill,” Addy said in a sing-song voice. Danny just pushed her. 

“It does not! She acts like this all the time! You gotta see her do something for it to count!” 

“Hey!” I cried, smacking both of them. “Did you two make a fuckin’ bet about me losing my chill?” The two of them just looked at each other. Then back at me. “Guys. Come on. Everyone else thinks I’m a freak. Wait—Addy, did you bet that I would lose my chill?”

“I just went off your track record—”

“What did you bet?” I asked, leaning into her. She rolled her eyes.

“No, Del, you’re right, we shouldn’t have bet on the alien going crazy—”

“Addy, what did you bet?”

“Fifty bucks.”

“So, if I lose my chill, you win fifty dollars?” I clarified. Danny’s eyes widened, and Addy grinned and nodded. “Okay!” 

“No, no, no, that’s so not fair—” Danny protested, but I swung my fist back and punched him right in the gut, sending a flush of energy into him. He lost all the air in his chest and groaned, sliding down in between the rows of bleachers. “Ow.”

“That constitutes as losing your chill,” Addy said with a grin. She high fived me and then motioned for Danny to pay up. I laughed and grinned. Surely, using my powers for fun was against the agreement I had with SHIELD. 

The teachers got everyone gathered onto the bleachers, and Dr. Reed, the principal, walked to the podium set up on the middle of the gym floor. I told myself for months that this didn’t matter. My high school graduation really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. But my heart still sped up as Dr. Reed began his speech about how proud the school was of us, how impressive our class was, and how the world wasn’t ready for the greatness we would bestow upon it. Everyone whispered and snickered throughout the entire thing. That is, until he pulled out a piece of paper from his suit jacket. Everyone seemed to silence all at once. I leaned forward. 

“And now, the moment most of you have been waiting for for the past four years,” he dramatized. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, I kept telling myself over and over again. But I still was so nervous. “Your salutatorian for the class of 2011 is…” 

A couple of nerds started a drum roll, but Reed gave them a glare. They stopped.

“Raoul Sherman!” Reed announced. My heart skipped a beat. Part of me wanted to hear my name, to finish the waiting. Salutatorian was a good place to be, after all. Surely Dad would still be proud. But it was Raoul walking up to shake Reed’s hand and take the blue stole. Not me. The pounding of my heart sped up again, however, when Raoul sat back down, the clapping subsided, and Reed looked down at his paper. 

“Now, this year has been filled with an impressive amount of competition, notably between two students. There has been uncertainty, however, about a certain student’s validity.”

Every single pair of eyes turned to look at me. I fought the urge to flip everyone off. 

“However, it has been decided that the top spot for this class should be determined as it always is, on grades and merit from the report cards shown every year. Therefore, our valedictorian is… Delilah Stark!”

There wasn’t clapping like there was for Raoul. Danny and Addy clapped, but everyone else just stared at me as I got up, walked to the floor, shook Reed’s hand, and took the white stole. I turned around to look at everyone I was graduating with. They stared at me, some with fear, some with uncertainty, even some with hatred. I just breathed out and grinned up at Addy and Danny. They cheered for me. Raoul looked up at them and sighed. Everyone came down to get caps, gowns, and everything else we would need next week. No one talked to me, or congratulated me like they did Raoul, and I was okay with that. 

I was going to be valedictorian of the class of 2011, and I was proud of that.


	8. May 31, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cue Pomp and Cirumstance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! Tony and Delilah have a huge fight. Please don't be mad. It'll all be okay soon!!

I stood in front of the mirror, letting Addy fix the back of my gown. My cords, stoles, and gown had gotten twisted up, and the graduates were supposed to be lining up. 

Addy looked gorgeous. She towered over me, even though both of us wore heels, and her vibrant purple hair had been recently dyed to platinum. That was her dads’ only request for graduation, since her violet hair didn’t match the royal blue of our robes. She counter-offered that if she dyed her hair, they would take her on a summer-long journey across Europe. They accepted, but everyone knew that they would take her to Europe, or wherever she wanted to go, even if she hadn’t dyed her hair blonde. She wore a sparkly white bodycon dress under her robes that made her spray tan pop. She grinned at me. 

“All straightened up, Miss Valedictorian,” she exclaimed. I grinned back at her. My pale blonde hair was straightened for the day, and it tumbled down my back, out of the way of my honors. I wore a short black satin shift dress under my gown. Addy said she would split the money she won from her bet with Danny with me if I wore heels, so I had on a pair of tall block heels. “Has, um, has your dad texted you?”

“No,” I replied, turning around. We started to walk out into the hall to line up with the others. “He usually doesn’t though, he just shows up.” She made a face and looked away. I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Come on, Addy, don’t worry about me. We literally had a conversation about it, like, last week! He’s gonna be there.” I wasn’t worried. Dad and I had been doing great recently. He even visited New York a couple months ago just for the hell of it. He, Pepper and I even spent my spring break skiing together. 

Everyone lined up in the fieldhouse, and I heard Pomp and Circumstance playing outside on the football field. Teachers ushered us out onto the field, where a stage was set up. Perfect rows of white chairs were lined up facing it. I glanced into the stands of cheering friends and family and grinned. I knew Dad would be so proud of me. Raoul and I led the lines of graduates down the field, and my heart was bursting with excitement.

“Hey,” I heard Raoul say. I didn’t know who he was talking to—obviously not me, so I ignored him, but then he said it again. I glanced at him. He was looking at me. I gave him a shocked look back.

“Oh, hey,” I replied. 

“I—I just wanted to say I’m really sorry,” he said quietly. “I’ve kind of been an asshole this year.” I scoffed.

“Kind of?” His face fell. I cleared my throat. “No, dude, it’s fine. I get it, you know.”

“Really, ‘cause—”

“No, not really,” I said with a laugh as we walked through the aisle between the chairs. Raoul and I sat next to each other as everyone else filed into their places behind us. I turned around and grinned at Danny and Addy. Raoul turned around and waved at them, too. They waved back, then made confused faces and pointed between Raoul and me. I just shrugged and laughed.

“No, dude,” Raoul said as we turned back around. The principal and school board took their places on the stage. “I mean it. I don’t really know why I acted like that. It’s not like… you changed who you were. I just finally found out who the real you is, and I—I was a loser.” I looked at him and smiled. 

“Wow. I’ve never thought of it like that. Thanks, Raoul. I really appreciate it.” I grinned. “I might use that in my speech now.”

“Wait, I’m using that!” he protested. I laughed and nodded. “Dude, are you telling me you don’t have a speech prepared?”

“Of course, I do! We had to send one in to get approved, remember?”

“But you’re not going to say a word of it, are you?”

“Absolutely not.” Raoul and I laughed, and the ceremony began. The whole time, I was itching to turn around to look into the stands to find Dad and Pepper. Surely Happy and Rhodey came, too. 

When Raoul got up for his speech, he talked about how change and realization was a good thing. And that we, especially the young generation entering the real world, had to embrace change and newness. I could hear and feel people shifting and whispering behind me. Everyone knew Raoul was referencing me, and how he and lots of other people had been assholes to me all year, but I just smiled and nodded encouragingly at him the whole time. 

Finally, it was my turn. I stood up, walked up the stairs, and stood at the podium. I looked out at the crowd, and quickly spotted Happy’s face. I looked around, but there was no Dad or Pepper. Why aren’t they sitting together? I scanned the crowd once. Again. Then I really looked at Happy. He was smiling, but it was a slightly blue smile. My heart began to pound differently than it was a few moments earlier. 

Dad didn’t come.

He didn’t come to my high school graduation. 

He said he would come, and he didn’t. 

I felt a lump forming in my throat. Someone behind me whispered that I needed to speak, or things were going to get awkward. I nodded, turned and muttered an apology, then turned back to the crowd. I sucked in the tears and took a deep breath. 

“Most of you know me as the girl that’s half-alien, half-Mid—half-human, but you also used to know me as just Delilah—Delilah Stark. I think I’m supposed to use this time to speak about how our future is bright, and how we’re the next generation full of hope, at least that’s what this speech in front of me says, but that’s all bull. If the people sitting in front of me are the future, I am ashamed. They couldn’t get over the fact that I was different, as if I could help it.”

I heard some board members whispering. I was going off script. 

“The world is changing. My dad taught me that—he taught all of us that. And you could accept him as some kind of hero. Most of you, anyway. You could accept him being something more, what? Just because he’s fully human? Well, he couldn’t even be bothered to show up for my high school graduation. So, how far does that human DNA even go? Not far enough, from what I’ve learned.”

“Stark!” Mr. Reed hissed from behind me. I sighed and flipped the page on my speech.

“Anyway,” I said through gritted teeth. I could hear my blood pumping. I could feel it. My hands were starting to glow, and energy started to spark off them. I gripped the podium. “Lots of you will end up at MIT, or some Ivy League. The Peace Corps, Doctors without Borders, maybe even become senators. Or the president. Midtown School for Science and Technology taught us so much, and we’ll teach the world even more. We are the future. Go and live it.” I nodded and practically ran off the stage to sit back down next to Raoul, who was silent. I held back tears as the ceremony continued. They called my name, I walked across the stage and shook everyone’s hands, took my diploma, and had my picture taken. I walked around and sat back down, where I stared at the turf until it was over. 

Everyone else tossed their caps up into the air, but I just stood and watched the caps fly. Addy and Danny ran to Raoul and me, and I knew they were talking to us and laughing, but I just smiled at them and hurried back into the fieldhouse. I slammed the door and leaned against the wall. My chest heaved, and my hands glowed uncontrollably. I held them up and stared at them, tears blurring my vision. 

“Kid,” I heard from down the hall. I whirled around to see Happy. 

A blast of energy flew out of my hand. I gasped and pulled back as it barely missed Happy’s head. He ducked and stared at me, surprised. What the hell was that? 

“I’m sorry—” I sobbed out. Happy just walked to me. I saw the glow start to crawl up my arms. “I—I don’t know what’s happening—” He opened his arms. “Happy! No—get away—” Something was wrong with me. I never glowed like this; this was new, and I couldn’t control myself. 

“Del, I think you just need to calm down,” he said softly, pulling me into a hug. I fought him at first, not wanting to hurt him, but then I just started to sob. “You’re really hot—”

“Yeah,” I replied through heaving sobs. “I’m an uncontrollable ball of energy!”

“Shh,” he whispered, putting a hand on my head. “You’re not uncontrollable. You’re just upset. That’s okay.” I cried against him for a bit, then I pulled away slightly and looked up at him. 

“Where is he?” I asked. Happy just looked away. “Happy.”

“He got distracted with tower stuff. He lost track of time, he said.” I pulled away and stared at Happy. Dad got carried away again. Of course. “I tried to call him—”

“Thanks for coming, Happy,” I said, hugging him again. The glow had subsided, but I still felt heat flowing through me. “I gotta go.” 

“Del, I told him to call you—”

“Okay, thanks,” I replied, walking through the doors. I phased into my suit, shoved the mask onto my head, and shot up into the air. 

I stayed up above the clouds for a long time. The sun passed through them, and the stars slowly began to come out. I just laid on my back in the air, staring up at space. Finally, I heard Jarvis in my ear.

“Incoming call from Tony Stark,” he said. I looked at my dad’s contact picture on the interface. I scoffed. 

“Whatever,” I replied. Jarvis connected us.

“Del,” Dad said. He sounded out of breath. I said nothing. “Del, are you there?”

“Yeah,” I replied. I felt tears coming again. Damn, I thought I cried enough today!

“Del, listen—”

“I know you’re just going to say that you’re sorry, you didn’t mean to, but I know all that.”

“Okay,” Dad said. “Okay. Good. So, why don’t we do something? So I can make it up to you—”

“Dad, there’s no making up for missing my graduation. I was—” my voice cracked. I sat up. “I was the fucking valedictorian. Like you talked about a million times. I did that for you, Dad! I guess—I guess after years and years of you constantly not showing up to any of my recitals or competitions just never taught me a fucking lesson! I worked to be valedictorian for no one but you, and you didn’t even come! You didn’t even hear my speech—”

“I watched the video Happy took—”

“Oh! Oh, you watched Happy’s video, okay, perfect, yeah, then that makes up for EVERYTHING!” I was flying around now, getting worked up. 

“Delilah, please, I’m sorry, but there’s no reason—”

“These past few years you acted like you cared!”

“I do care.”

“You make no effort! When—when you got kidnapped, I thought I was going to have to fly to the fuckin’ Middle East and save your ass, and when you got out of there yourself, I felt relieved but also super bummed! You know why? I wanted to prove to you that I was something! And, and then I thought if I could just make the suits better. If I could just create a whole new element with you, it would make everything better! Suddenly everything would be fixed. But one fucking spring break together doesn’t fix shit, apparently!”

“Del, I know you’re upset, but maybe we should have this conversation—”

“Delilah, incoming call from an Agent Coulson,” Jarvis interrupted. Dad and I both stopped. 

“Wh—what?” I asked.

“Agent Coulson is calling,” Jarvis said. I balled up my fists. 

“Okay. Answer it. End call with Dad.”

“DELILAH ACE—” His voice shut off and I was on the line with Agent Coulson. I took a few deep breaths. 

“Delilah Stark?” Coulson answered. 

“Agent Coulson,” I replied, sounding a lot calmer that I actually was. “What can I do for you?”

“Director Fury and I would like to have a word with you. In person.”

“About… what?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

“About joining SHIELD.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you Del was going to get a cool job!


	9. October 5, 2011

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I skipped a bunch of months. Also, sorry, short lil chapter. But some excitement is heating up!!

I’ve been a SHIELD agent for three months now. I haven’t seen Dad, Pepper, or Happy since May. Rhodey and I have actually been sent on a couple missions together regarding the Ten Rings, but every time we’ve seen each other, he asks about Dad. I just get mad and ignore those questions. 

Stark Tower has been coming along nicely, and I stay there when I know Pepper and Dad won’t be there. I talk to Pepper every once in a while, after all, it’s not her fault that Dad didn’t show up. Most of the time I stay in the SHIELD apartments with a few other agents from my training class. Sometimes I talk with Addy, but she’s been busy ever since the school year started at the University of Paris, and I don’t get much time off from SHIELD.

Between flying from New Mexico to work with Jane and Darcy, up to Nevada to the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, and back to SHIELD headquarters in NYC and DC, I didn’t have a lot of free time. Fury and Coulson are constantly busting my ass. And don’t even get me started on Natasha. If she’s not off in Russia kicking Soviet ass, she’s in DC kicking mine. When I trained with her, I wasn’t allowed to use my powers. According to Nat, I had to learn how to fight like a woman. 

I leaned over the Tesseract, the glowing blue cube that Fury had Erik and I working on, and it started to hum. 

“Do that again,” Erik called from his monitors. I whirled around and put my hands on my hips. 

“Erik! I have been doing this—” I leaned back and away from the Tesseract a couple times, making it hum and glow then stop— “For two months! What are you getting?”

“Must have been a blip,” the older man replied, looking up at me. I rolled my eyes. He sighed and we met at a group of computers. “How have Darcy and Jane been?”

“Eh, getting closer. We think. Jane is ever the optimist, but Darcy is getting annoyed at that optimism. I just wish SHIELD didn’t keep dragging me back and forth across the country. Maybe I could do something of substance in one place.”

“Well, you’re a talented young lady!” Erik exclaimed, clapping me on the back. I laughed. “They need you!”

“They sure do,” I replied, making a couple notes from our readings. I glanced back over at the Tesseract. It reacted every time I came near it. The first time I touched it, a sonic boom went off. Apparently, you weren’t supposed to touch it. Especially not if you were an alien. I pretty much confirmed everyone’s thoughts that it was also alien, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Fury had always known where it was from. I tried to ask him about it, but he was a closed book. The files were also closed—even the old physicals ones that I dragged up from the bowels of SHIELD HQ. 

“Headed to New Mexico after tonight?” Erik asked. I shook my head.

“Nope, back to DC. I have a debrief with—” My watch beeped, and I checked it. It had a message from Fury. 

Needed in NYC pronto.

Then, after a couple seconds:

Seriously, Ace, leave now. 

I sighed, said bye to Erik and his team, then headed out the doors and through the facility. I was always rushing somewhere, leaving whatever I was doing the second Fury needed me. I thought being a SHIELD agent would be fun and I would get to do more of what Rhodey and I do, but it was mostly consultant work and boring no-powers spy stuff. And a whole lot of listening to whatever Fury and Coulson told me to do. Pepper joked that she wasn’t sure why I signed up for SHIELD when I hated listening to people telling me what to do, and I thought about that a lot. 

I walked into Fury’s office to meet him and Coulson standing at the desk. 

“Gentlemen,” I greeted them. They both turned to me. 

“Stark,” Fury replied. “We have a mission for you.”

“Great. Where?”

“The Arctic,” Coulson said with a small smile. 

“What—You can’t send Romanoff? She’s already kinda up there,” I protested. Fury’s one good eye glared into me and I sighed. “What’s the mission?”

“We don’t know. But you’re on a plane in one hour, Ace.”


	10. October 6, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As usual, all storylines and characters from Marvel movies (in this chapter's case, from Captain America: The First Avenger) belong to Marvel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confession time: Captain America is my least favorite Avenger. But I just had to get Delilah in on his story.

As I sat in the snowmobile next to the SHIELD lieutenant, I was still shocked. No one knew what we were doing out here, and the people who seemed to know something weren’t talking. If Fury knew anything, he definitely wasn’t talking. That son of a bitch didn’t even tell me that SHIELD was using the Destroyer’s parts to make weapons. That was something I did not approve of, and I planned on confronting Fury about it. That man was hard to confront, though.

“First solo mission, Ace?” the lieutenant asked. I glanced at him and shook my head. He hmphed and kept driving through the snow. 

One good thing about being a special agent for SHIELD? You get a kickass nickname. I thought I was going to get to choose mine. I would have chosen “the Rocket,” “Sparky,” or something sick like that, but when Coulson saw my file and read my last name, he about had a laughing fit.

“Delilah ‘Ace’ Stark?” he asked, looking up at me. There were tears in his eyes as he laughed. He had been laughing for the past three minutes. I rolled my eyes from across the table. 

“Like you don’t have a nerdy middle name, Phil.”

“Actually, it’s James.” I just scoffed.

“Agent Stark,” Fury said, leaning forward. “As you know, we are placing you under the supervision of Agent Romanoff, AKA—”

“Black Widow,” I said, nodding. “I remember her, Director.”

“Good. Then you’ll know she’s very high up.” 

“Uh-huh,” I replied, unsure of where this was going.

“And many of her missions deal with top-secret information, therefore her name is withheld.”

“Hence her alias of Black Widow,” Coulson offered. “You need an alias as well.”

“Oh, my God,” I said, leaning forward and grinning. “I have the perfect name—”

“You start with her tomorrow,” Fury announced, glancing at Coulson, who was hiding a chuckle. “Ace.”

My jaw dropped as they stood up. “Ace!” I cried after them. “Ace! That’s the best you got? It’s literally my middle name, how the hell is that top secret?”

Up ahead, I saw the shape of a person waving us down. They were holding a stick with a red light on top. The lieutenant stopped the snowmobile, and we jumped out. I met him around the front, and we walked to the search team leader in the lights of the truck.

“Are you the guys from Washington?” he called over the wind and snow. 

“You get many other visitors out here?” I replied. He just stared at me.

“Uh, ma’am? Are you cold?” I glanced at them in their parkas, gloves, ski pants, boots, and goggles. I was just in my suit, wearing my mask like a headband, barefoot. I barely hovered over the snow. I was constantly radiating energy, so I was pretty much always warm. Temperatures never seemed to affect me. 

“Nah, I’m all good,” I told him. 

“How long have you been on site?” the lieutenant asked as we made our way across the snow. 

“Since this morning! A Russian oil team called it in about eighteen hours ago.”

“How come nobody spotted it before?” the lieutenant called out. 

“And how come SHIELD had to drag us all the way—?” The lieutenant elbowed me, and I shut up.

“It’s really not that surprising,” the team leader replied. “This landscape’s changing all the time. You got any ideas what this thing is exactly?”

“I don’t know, it’s probably a weather balloon,” the lieutenant offered. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, Nick Fury sent me out here for a weather balloon!” I cried as I looked around the Arctic scene. The only lights came from the red bulbs on top of the sticks the workers carried.

“Yeah, I don’t think so, either!” the team leader agreed. “You know, we don’t really have the equipment for a job like this.” We walked past other people setting up red lights into the snow, forming a pattern of some kind. 

“How long before we can start craning it out?” I asked, already bored. 

“I don’t think you understand!” the search team leader laughed. “You guys are gonna need one hell of a crane!” Up ahead of and above us, I saw a green beam from a flashlight waving around. I stared up at the large thing forming in front of me. A large metal shape stuck out from the snow; it looked like the wing or the nose of a plane. A really old plane. My eyebrows furrowed as we walked around to meet part of the search team. 

“Agent Stark and I will go inside, check it out,” the lieutenant said. He banged his foot onto the metal body. I could feel the vibrations flying off his contact with it. Whatever was down there, it was huge. And empty.

“Agent Stark—you’re—”

“Yeah,” I replied, moving past a few of the men. I pulled the mask down over my eyes. “Jarvis, what are you reading?” I saw the scan he did of the inside of the craft. It was definitely a plane, and it looked mostly empty except for lots of ice and snow piled up in places. 

“There seems to be a weakness right here,” Jarvis said, showing me a pinpoint. I moved over slightly and glanced up at the men. They were staring at me. 

“You guys got something to break this open, or should I?” They didn’t answer, so I rolled my eyes, jumped up, and shot an energy beam from my hand into the metal. I moved my hand in a circular motion, then jumped down on top of the circle I made. It fell into the ship with an echoing clang. I looked back up at them as I hovered above the hole. “No, don’t even worry about it, I got it!” 

The lieutenant groaned and started hooking himself up to a harness. I dropped in first and looked around. 

“Whoa,” I whispered, checking out the oddly shaped metal beams. They were bent slightly to hold up the round shape of the ship. It was a large plane, but it wasn’t American. I looked around the darkness of the ship and lit my hand with an energy ball of light. “Lieutenant!” 

He dropped in via harness and rope and landed inside the ship. He also looked around in awe. He waved his flashlight around. I walked through it, checking out the pipes and machinery. I let out a deep breath and saw it float in the air. 

“Base,” the lieutenant said. I could hear him in my comm and right behind me, “we’re in.” After a moment, I heard him whisper, “What is this?” I turned to look at him as he slipped on a patch of ice, then caught himself. 

“Careful, Lieutenant,” I chuckled as I flew around the ship slowly. 

“Delilah, I’m picking up a strange material that does not match the rest of the craft’s composition,” Jarvis said. I glanced around.

“Like what? Where?” I asked. The lieutenant glanced over at me. I floated over to where Jarvis was picking up the strange readings. I looked up at the bay windows and around at the chair and console. This must have been the front of the ship. Who was piloting this thing when it went down? I wondered. I bent down near the chair and wiped frost from the ice that was piled up. I pulled back slightly. 

“This object seems to be made of—”

“Vibranium,” I whispered as I stared at it. I had seen something like this before, once, in a box of my grandfather’s things. I used it to prop up some pipes last summer. Coulson helped me. “This can’t be…”

“What’d you find, Stark?” the lieutenant asked, walking over. He shone light on me. His eyes widened as he stared at the red, white, and blue shield. “My God.”

“Sir, we need to call Fury.”

“Base, give me a line to the colonel,” he said into the comms.

“It’s three AM, sir!”

“I don’t care what time it is!” the lieutenant snapped. I stood up next to him and stared down at our discovery. “This one’s waited long enough.”

“Right away, sir.”

“You know what this is, Stark?” 

“Well,” I said, looking around. “I believe we’re standing in the Valkyrie and staring down at Captain America’s dead body.” The lieutenant looked impressed that I knew what this was. I just rolled my eyes. “Howard Stark was my grandfather, Lieutenant. I know my history.”

“He is not dead,” Jarvis said. 

“What?” I replied. “Yeah, he is, how can he—?”

“His body seems to be in a cryogenically preserved state.” 

“No way,” I muttered as I stared down at the ice.


	11. October 8, 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki appears.

“So,” I said, looking across the table at Fury. “What’s gonna happen with him?”

“We’ll slowly adapt him to his new state.”

“His new state?” I scoffed. “I don’t think he’s a moron, Fury! You put him downstairs in a box; he’s gonna figure it out—”

“All agents, code thirteen!” I heard in my comms. I glared at Fury, who just gave me an “oh shit” face. “Code thirteen!” I rolled my eyes and Fury and I busted out of his office. Fury ran for the elevator, but I grabbed him and dove us both off the balcony to the lobby. Fury shouted at me, and a bunch of people jumped and ran away from us as we landed. “Sorry, sir. Code thirteen!”

“Son of a bitch,” Fury hissed as he straightened himself out. “You stay here!”

“Aw, why?” I cried after him. 

“Because you’ll freak him out, you freak!” the director shouted at me as he ran out the glass doors. I just rolled my eyes and laid back with some other agents as the director chased after Captain America. 

“Second time in your office in one day,” I remarked as I walked into Fury’s office. He and Coulson stood at Fury’s desk as they usually did. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, but you’re being relocated.”

“Do I get to go to the Retreat?” I grinned, hoping I could go see Captain America. 

“No,” Coulson replied, his cool and collected smile greeting me. “You get to go continue your work with Dr. Selvig.” I crossed my arms.

“I am more than just a consultant, Coulson!”

“Yes, but until Romanoff returns for your final evaluation, you are still considered… Ah, Director, what are the words Agent Romanoff used?” Coulson asked, turning to Fury. Fury chuckled without smiling.

“I believe they were ‘reckless’ and ‘sidelined until further notice.’” I rolled my eyes as the two men laughed me out of the office. Once outside the New York headquarters, I leapt into the air. 

“Jarvis, tell Erik I’m on my way back to PEGASUS,” I instructed. 

“Of course,” Jarvis replied. I sighed.

“And call Pepper.” She answered almost immediately.

“Del?” she cried. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s dandy, Pep,” I told her. 

“Are you flying?”

“Yeah… Fury’s sending me back to work in the west.”

“Still can’t release that location, huh?”

“Oh, definitely not,” I said with a smirk. 

“We saw that, uh, Captain America has been found!” Pepper offered. Ever since the summer, even my conversations with Pepper had been slightly strained. We grasped at straws when it came to talking to each other, as long as those straws had nothing to do with my dad. “Has there been anything happening with him with SHIELD?” I couldn’t help but laugh as I remembered wiping away the ice covering the shield of the captain. 

“Yeah, Pep, I, uh… I was the one who found him,” I said. Pepper was silent for a moment. I frowned. “Pepper?” 

“You what?”

“I found Captain America—”

“HOW?”

“How? Fury sent me out to the damn Arctic, and I found the damn Valkyrie!”

“The what?”

I rolled my eyes. “Put Dad on, he would know what—” We were both silent for a moment. I took a deep breath. “The, uh, the Valkyrie was a, um, a HYDRA ship used in World War Two; it was, uh, the ship that Steve Rogers took down when we—”

“Oh, right, right, yeah, sorry I am not a nerd like you Starks when it comes to stuff like that,” Pepper replied with a laugh. “You know your dad would love to hear about how you found him. He knew your grandfather, you know.”

“I know!” I flipped upside down and stared up at the sky. “I know. You can tell him.”

“He won’t believe me,” Pepper groaned. “Talk to your father—”

“I’m good,” I said. I scoffed. “As if he’d believe me, either. Jesus.”

“Delilah,” Pepper warned. I sighed. 

“Alright, Pep, well I gotta blast to Nevada—oh, shit—I mean the west, so, uh, see ya.” I hung up and turned around. I dove through the clouds and zoomed across the country to Nevada.

“Alright, Dr. Selvig, how’s it going?” I asked as I walked into the lab. I frowned as I saw Selvig staring into one of the metal cabinets, just staring at his reflection. He was mouthing something, but I didn’t hear anything coming from him. I chuckled awkwardly. “Hey, Doc, you alright there?” He blinked and turned to look at me. He smiled at me but seemed spaced out. 

“Oh, hey, uh, Delilah,” he called, walking to me. He put his hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Yeah, come on over, check this out!” I nodded and followed him but furrowed my eyebrows. Maybe he needed sleep, or some food. I paused and looked around as he began to explain a few things to me. 

“Doc, sorry,” I interrupted, holding my hand out. I glanced around. “Is… Is someone else here?” I glanced at the metal cabinet, then up and around the lab. I got an eerie feeling, and chills ran through my spine. 

“Oh, yeah, I completely forgot!” he cried, waving his hands around. “Barton! Hey, Barton, come meet another member of the team!” 

I turned around as a man jumped down from the rafters above the lab. My jaw dropped as he walked over to us, his eyes narrowed at me. I looked him up and down. He wore a leather suit like I’ve seen a few other special agents of SHIELD wear, his hair was cropped short, and he held… a bow. On his back was slung a quiver of arrows. I cocked my head at him. 

“Special Agent Clint Barton,” he said, holding his hand out. “Also known as—”

“Hawkeye,” I finished, shaking his hand firmly. “I know. I’ve been working closely with Black Widow. Special Agent Delilah Stark. Also known as—” I stopped and sighed. Barton smiled.

“Ace.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, glancing at Erik. I looked back at Clint. “Alright, Barton, what are you doing here, and why does Fury need us both?”

“I’m here purely for backup,” he replied, glancing around. “Project PEGASUS is of high interest for many people SHIELD doesn’t want poking around.” I scoffed and looked back at Erik.

“See what I mean? They give me a lame ass name like ‘Ace’ and then send someone else in to do my damn job.”

“I thought your job was to talk to the Tesseract.” 

Erik and I looked at Clint, then looked at each other. My jaw dropped. 

“Uh,” Clint chuckled, “Did I say something?”

“Yeah,” I breathed out, “Yeah, Hawkeye, you did.”

I stood in front of the Tesseract and looked back at Erik. “Are you ready?” Erik plugged in a few things and typed furiously on a laptop. Clint sat up in the rafters, swinging one leg. I glanced up at him and chuckled. Who would have thought that such a simplified overview of my task might be just what we needed? 

“Ready,” Erik called, giving me a thumbs up. He stared desperately at the screens. I sighed and looked back down at the Tesseract. SHIELD had been paying this man to stay underground and research this damn cube for months now. And even with him and I working together, progress was still barely inching forward. 

I cracked my neck and held my hands out on either side of the Tesseract. That seemed to be what got us the most readings. I glanced back at Erik, who gave me the all-clear again. 

“Okay, cube-thing,” I whispered. “Show me what you got.” I stared in silence at it.

“Keep going!” Erik called.

“You got anything?” I asked back.

“Just keep talking to it!”

I groaned and looked back down at the glowing blue cube. Bright blue clouds brewed inside, and I cocked my head. Something inside glowed bright blue, like a core of some kind. 

“Hey, there,” I whispered, kneeling down. “Hey, come on. We need, uh, you to, uh… talk to us. Because that makes, you know, total sense. Sorry, I’m not trying to insult you, but you are, well, an inanimate object, and—” 

The cube shifted. I backed away.

“Holy shit!” I cried. “Erik, did you see that?”

“Keep going, this is great!”

“Okay, okay,” I said, looking back down at the cube. “Okay, sorry, if I offended you. Are you… not just an object? Are you—are you alive?” 

Suddenly, I was no longer in the lab. I was standing on a rock, in the middle of space. I looked around at the glowing galaxies and twinkling stars around me. 

“Holy shit…” I muttered.

“You are clever, darling,” a voice behind me said. I jumped and whirled around. I saw a familiar face. He looked a little older. His hair was longer, and his eyes… His eyes were a glowing blue. I gasped. 

“Loki,” I whispered. “Loki, what’s wrong with your—”

“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to reach that cube for a while now,” he mused, walking to me. He held a golden scepter that curved at the top. I took a step back. 

“Where the hell am I? You’re—you died!” 

“Oh, no, no, dear. I did not die. I simply… found myself in an opportune corner of the cosmos.” I shivered as I looked around. 

“Why is it so cold?” I whispered. “I don’t get cold—”

“How did you do it?” he asked, stopping right in front of me. I looked up at him. I shook my head, confused.

“Do what?”

He laughed. “This again? Do not play games with me, mortal—”

“Half mortal!” I protested. He rolled his eyes. Then he smiled down at me. I felt uneasy under his gaze. His eyes were a terrifying glowing blue, just like— “Loki, seriously, what’s wrong with your eyes?” Without thinking, I raised my hand. It ghosted across his still face, but he grabbed my wrist and glared. “Ow—Loki—”

“I am more powerful than you,” he seethed. “You will tell me how you—” There was a snap, a white light, and a shudder that went through me. Then, I was back in the PEGASUS lab, gasping and falling to the floor. Erik and a few technicians hovered over me. Clint was bent down, checking my pulse. I pushed away from him and stood up. I stared at the Tesseract. 

“What the hell happened?” Erik asked, panting. I shook my head.

“I am not talking to that thing again. It’s not a good idea to—to keep that thing here!” I cried as I stormed out of the lab.


	12. December 13, 2011

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of Iron Man 3 Prelude (the comic). This comic, its characters, and storylines, belong to Marvel.

“Incoming call from Colonel Rhodes, Delilah,” Jarvis said in my ear from my headband. I blocked a punch from Clint and threw him into the cushioned wall behind him. He groaned and fell to the floor. 

“Alright,” I answered, walking to the corner for my water. “Put him on.”

“Hey, Del, how’s it going?” Rhodey greeted. 

“Great,” I answered as I helped Clint up. He just shoved me playfully and grabbed his own water bottle. While we had some down time at PEGASUS, we would go up to the training floor where there were plenty of obstacle and tactical training rooms for SHIELD agents. “Where have you been? Pakistan? India?”

“Ghazni.” I took a deep breath. 

“Ten Rings?”

“Yep.”

“Anything SHIELD needs to know about, or is this just a courtesy call?”

“Absolutely, SHIELD needs to know about this! I don’t know where they’re getting this firepower, Del—”

“It’s not Stark tech, is it?” 

“No, no, it’s bad, much worse. HK-MP-Fives.”

“Isn’t that what they had in Mumbai?” 

“Sure is.”

“Shit, Rhodey. I thought you said the war down there is almost over.”

“I said I think it’s almost over, kid,” he groaned. “It would be a lot quicker with Iron Man and—”

“Don’t say it!” I hissed. I heard Clint laugh behind me. I sent a cloud of energy into him, knocking him back into the wall.

“—Ace.” Rhodey sighed. “I’m just saying, kid. This war may be over, but there’s a whole ‘nother baddie headed our way.” I thought of the Tesseract and how I saw Loki. Alive. 

“I know, Rhodes,” I replied. “I can feel it, too. I’ll alert Fury. Thanks, Rhodey.”

“Have you talked to your dad recently?”

“Bye, Rhodey!” I hung up and turned around to see Clint standing behind me with his arms crossed. “Don’t be mad about the…” He lunged for me, and I dodged him. I jumped up, and we continued our sparring.


	13. January 19, 2012

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tests are done aboard the helicarrier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a companion to the comic The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative. This comic, its characters, storylines, and script all belong to Marvel.

I couldn’t get Loki’s glowing blue eyes out of mind. They looked just like the Tesseract, the same glowing, swirling blue. It was terrifying. I know those aren’t Loki’s eyes. I could see his bright, beautiful green eyes in my head as well, and I could hear his sweet voice whispering, “Trust me.” 

And then I saw him grabbing my wrist on that rock in space, his voice no longer sweet, but rough and dark. 

“Hey, Stark,” Natasha said from my left. I sat up and looked over at her. “Head out of the clouds.” I groaned and looked down at the dark helicarrier. It was an impressive boat-plane. Plane-boat? I still wasn’t sure what to technically call this thing—Fury insisted I just call it the helicarrier, but I was difficult—, and I still wasn’t sure why he assigned Natasha and I to guard it. 

“I’m bored, Nat,” I replied, swinging my leg over the ledge. A couple agents walked through the main bridge below us. 

“Sorry. Contact the pump room if you’re so bored,” Natasha muttered. I rolled my eyes.

“Carrier pump room?” I said to the other agents on the comms. “Twenty-three hundred hours, what is the counter-sign?”

“Counter-sign is wild rice,” an agent responded through the comm. “Carrier pump room is all clear, Agent Stark.”

“Thank you, pump room, and thank you for using my name—”

“Calm down, Ace,” Natasha chuckled. She stood up and I looked up at her. 

“Where the hell are you going?” I asked. She pointed wordlessly to a shape moving across a corner of the bridge. The figure slipped around the corner out of sight. 

“Carrier archive room; twenty-three hundred hours. Counter-sign?” Natasha asked as we slipped through the darkness of the helicarrier. I slipped my mask over my head completely and followed my lead agent through the halls. 

“Wild rice,” the agent stationed at the archives said over the comms. “Carrier archive is all clear, Agent Romanoff.” 

“Thank you, archive,” she responded. We stopped at a corner and I checked around. I gave Natasha the all-clear and we ran down to the stairs. 

“What is it, Nat?” I whispered as we flew down the stairs. “You think someone broke in for some archives?”

“Not just archives,” she replied as we snuck into the archives room. We climbed over a few boxes, and I heard a familiar voice talking. A glowing light shone above the stacks of boxes we were on top of. Natasha held up the ‘wait’ signal and then peeked over the boxes.

“Hey, tall, dark, and unauthorized,” she said to the intruder. “It’s twenty-four hundred hours. What’s the counter-sign?”

“Huh?” I heard our intruder say. Natasha leapt down and I peeked over the boxes to watch her tackle the man in the black full-body suit. 

“I’ll give you a hint! It’s ‘Black Widow,’ and you’re busted!” He fought her off, and I glanced over at the computers. A hologram of Nick Fury was playing, and he was talking about some top-secret information. I gasped and dove down silently. As Natasha and the suited man fought and bantered, I snuck over to the computer and tried to stop the download the man had started.

“—Every terrorist organization and crime cartel in the world wants the inside dope on the dream team your one-eyed boss is assembling… so I’m pirating it from the horse’s mouth!” the thief cried as Natasha kicked at him. He jumped back. 

I looked up at Fury, still continuing his briefing.

“The World Security Council has also voiced many reservations about Iron Man—Tony Stark, of Stark Industries…” Fury went on. I began to hack into the computer, hoping Natasha could keep our new friend busy. They sure were talking a lot, though. And so was Fury, about my dad, and then about Thor. I paused and watched some footage of Thor break some dwarves out of prison.

“How the hell did they even video tape that?” I hissed as I typed away furiously, fighting whatever thieving software the man applied to the computer. 

“Thus concludes my assessment to the World Security Council,” Fury said over the hologram. 

“And that means my download’s done, too! Hate to deprive you of my company, beautiful, but—” He turned around and saw me at the computer. The download halted at ninety-nine percent. I looked up at him.

“Oh, shit,” I cried.

“What the hell is she doing here—?” 

Natasha thrust her fist at the man, and blue electricity came out of her wrist cuff, aimed right at the intruder. He flew back, shouted, and stared up at her.

“YOW! Where’d that come from, Natasha?” 

I looked from him to Natasha wildly. Black Widow just looked down at her cuff, which was still sparking and crackling. 

“Just a little gadget tech directorate was tinkering for me…” It spazzed out. She jumped. “Uh, that doesn’t sound good. Looks like some kinks need to be worked of my ‘widow’s sting’ before it’s field-ready.” She popped it off and kicked it away as it still fizzed. It died out on the ground as it landed. 

“Hey, what the hell is going on?” I cried, looking at the man. “Do you two know each other—?”

“That’s about the only thing that went wrong tonight, Natasha,” a voice said from the shadows. I whirled around, and my jaw dropped. 

“You sure about that? He only had one percent to go before Del stopped the download!” Natasha replied, helping the man in the suit up. Director Fury walked into the light of the computers. I scoffed. The man groaned as he stood up and pulled his mask off. He turned around, and I gasped and crossed my arms. 

“Hey,” Clint said, turning around to look at us, “Maybe you could have told me she had a ray gun before you sent me in here!”

“This was an exercise?” I cried. “Maybe you could have told me that!”

“That would be a negative, Agents,” Fury replied. “This test of carrier security had to be as realistic as possible. The bad guys won’t know all of our defenses any more than we’ll know every way they’ll attack.”

“Come on, Director, how come they got to know, and I didn’t?” I groaned. Fury just gave me a look with his one eye.

“Realistic as possible, Agent Stark. These two have already had a couple drills in which Hawkeye would enter from different vantage points. Which reminds me… How did you get on board, Hawkeye?” I just leaned my head back and took a few deep breaths. I thought some bad guy was really trying to infiltrate our brand new helicarrier. Which, I understand, is the point of a realistic exercise, but I was a little annoyed that I was the only one who didn’t know.

“Through the bilge pumps,” Clint answered, smiling at me and offering his hand. I just slapped it and chuckled. I couldn’t stay mad at that dork. 

“I didn’t think that was your usual cologne,” Natasha teased. My eyes widened. They were shameless flirts, and everyone knew it.

“Tell me about it. Whew! Stink must have thrown off my aim.”

“Oh, now it’s the stink.” 

Clint just laughed at his best friend and glanced over at the director. “I listened to your files during the download, boss. I’d never such a… frank assessment of the would-be Avengers. Sounds to me like you’ve drawn a hand full of wild cards.” He glanced over at me and raised an eyebrow. My eyes widened.

“Wait, am I on that thing?” I asked.

“You really sure you can count on this bunch in a tight spot?”

“Let’s hope so,” Fury responded, eyeing me. “After all, the only time we’d ever count on this bunch is in the tightest spot there is.” I just rolled my eyes. Fury had spent months and months ignoring my warnings about the Tesseract. I refused to talk to it again, and I warned him that Loki was coming, but he didn’t take me seriously. Maybe he was going to have to. After all, he seemed like he was gearing up for something big.

Maybe he was listening to me after all, that big softy.


	14. April 30, 2012

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recognize the chapter's date? You should. This is the day before Loki attacks Project: PEGAGUS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this fic, if you made it to the end! I'll be posting my Avengers fic soon (maybe??). It takes me a while to write because I have a lot of my own personal storylines planned out with the actual MCU storylines that I have to fine tune, lots of movies to watch to make sure I'm getting everything right, and rough drafts to go through and make less rough. I put way too much work into this than I should. Enjoy the last chapter of this part of my series!

Last night, I dreamed that Loki and I were on that rock in space again. But he was crying. His eyes were green again, not that electric, heartless blue. I tried to move to him, but I couldn’t. Something was stopping me. Someone held my arms, but I could not see them. 

I screamed and cried, I yelled out for Loki, but I couldn’t move. He was crumpled on the ground. His whole body shook. A white light radiated out from me, and I heard screams. 

I jumped awake in my bunk. I looked around me, at the other sleeping agents in bunks around me, and fell back onto the bed. Natasha was in the bed next to me, her back to me. She had been more closed off than she usually was recently. I knew that she had a tough mission a couple months ago, but she barely talked to me anymore. I sighed and sat up. I slipped out of bed and headed out into the hall. I hovered over the cold steel floor so that I didn’t make a sound. After all, I was just getting some air. I wasn’t trying to break into anything. I flew up to the top of the huge brig and laid down on one of the horizontal steel supports. I let my legs swing on either side of it and put my hands under my head. I sighed, and my eyes slowly started to close. 

“Delilah,” a deep voice said. I jumped up and whirled around. I looked down around the helicarrier, but no one was there. I frowned.

“Jarvis, what the hell was that?”

“What the hell was what?”

“Who’s there?”

“There is no life force awake on this floor but you,” Jarvis said matter-of-factly. I laughed nervously.

“Okay, but then who just said—?”

“Delilah!” the voice called again. I jumped up and crouched on the beam I had been laying on. 

“What the fuck?” I hissed. 

“Delilah!” My eyes closed and suddenly I saw a familiar man, skin dark, eyes golden, hands clenched around a huge sword. I gasped. 

“Heimdall?”

“We do not have much time.”

“What is it?”

“Delilah,” Jarvis interrupted in my ear. “CE levels are spiking in… Well, you’re not going to like this.”

I stared into Heimdall’s eyes. “Heimdall, what is it? And—and how are you even here, I mean—”

“Loki is alive.” My eyes widened. “He will infiltrate your realm. He will steal the Tesseract. You must act quickly!”

“He is?” I whispered quietly. “I—I had a weird vision of him, months ago, but—” 

“You must go! You must defend your realm from him and the army he is amassing!”

“The what?” I shrieked, but I blinked, and Heimdall was gone. I gasped and looked around. “What the hell, what the hell—? Jarvis, get Fury!”

“Contacting Nick Fury.”

“And where are those CE levels rising?” A pause. Then:

“Nevada.”

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone catch the Heathers reference? I'm a sucker for musical references. Also, kind of annoyed that AO3 doesn't allow italics? Kind of makes the diary pieces a little hard to decipher.


End file.
